Parks Bill passes Senate Judiciary 7-2

SB0976 (Beavers - TFA LIFE member) passes out of the Senate Judiciary on a7/2 vote on May 6, 2009.

The bill is the Senate companion to the House bill HB0716 (Nicely) which hasalready passed the House on a vote of 71-22.

The Senate bill is much better than the House version. It by defaultincludes local parks as being open for permit holders but allows localgovernments to close the park (the entire park - not just a part) by passingan ordinance.

There was heavy lobbying against the bill by the State administration as
well as a proposed amendment by Senator Kyle to give local governments theability to close that portion of local parks in their jurisdictions.

One improvement to the bill would be to require local action by 2/3 voterather than a simple majority. We are of course talking about a US SupremeCourt acknowledged right of self-defense and the issue is whether there is acompelling reason to infringe that right. A simple majority does notestablish a compelling state or local interest to warrant infringement!